At the end of 1944, in the face of the approaching
Red Army offensive, the Auschwitz administration set about removing
the traces of the crimes that they had committed. They destroyed documents,
dismantled some buildings, and burned others down or demolished them
with explosives. The orders for the final evacuation and liquidation
of the camp were issued in mid-January 1945.
Prisoners capable of marching were evacuated into
the depths of the Third Reich in late January 1945, at the moment
when Soviet soldiers were liberating Kraków, some 60 kilometers
from the camp. Approximately 56,000 men and women prisoners were led
out of Auschwitz from January 17-21 in marching columns escorted by
heavily armed SS guards. Many prisoners lost their lives during this
tragic evacuation, known as the "Death March." On January
27, 1945, Red Army soldiers liberated the few thousand prisoners whom
the Germans had left behind in the camp.